Friend Indeed
by Peaceblossom26
Summary: After her date turns out to be a snore, Miranda's evening goes from bad to worse. She's mugged on her way home. But everybody's lovable bobcat just happens to be nearby. Can Bonkers rescue her? Another peek into their quirky friendship.


Friend Indeed

Miranda sat at her desk typing up the last report of the day. She smiled as she took the last page out of the type writer.

Just then Bonkers D. Bobcat, the only toon on the LA. PD force, walked in holding a paper plate of donuts. He saw her smile and smiled himself. He had to admit he liked to see his partner happy. The toon bobcat sat quietly and watched her as she hummed to herself as she put the papers in a folder and straightened out her desk.

Miranda turned and saw her partner staring at her. She jumped.

"Oh!" She knocked over a cup of water that was on the desk. "Bonkers! You almost gave me a heart attack." She bent down to wipe up the water. "How long have you been sitting there?"

The toon bobcat smiled. "Long enough to hear the bridge of 'Meet me in St. Louis'." Bonkers jumped up from where he was sitting and landed in front of her, his eyes shining.

Miranda blushed. "Oh, you heard that huh."

"Aw Miranda, I think you're a great singer. We should go to a karaoke club some time. I bet you'd be a hit."

Miranda smiled. "You're sweet Bonkers." She glanced at her watch. "Whoa, nearly 7:00 pm." She grabbed her duffle bag headed for the door. "Gotta go."

Bonkers watched her as she ran past him. "Uh, what's the hurry? I thought maybe we could watch some old movies at my place tonight." He asked her.

Miranda stopped at the door to the office. She turned to see her toon friend staring at her. "Sorry, Bonkers, I have other plans tonight. Another time ok. Goodnight."

Bonkers waved as he watched her go through the door and close it behind her. The toon sighed. "Goodnight Miranda."

Five minutes later, Bonkers descended he stairs of the police department, his tail dragging behind him.

"Hey Bobcat." Came a voice. Bonkers turned to see Sergeant Grating walking down the stairs behind him. "What's with the long face?" The Sergeant adjusted the collar of his jacket. "Not that I care. You toons are usually jumping' all over the place."

"Oh, it's nothing. I just thought Miranda wanted to hang out tonight, but she already had plans."

"Ach, don't worry Bobcat. You're not the only guy whose been brushed off by a woman. See ya." And with that, Grating walked off down the street.

Bonkers stood there a moment. His tail and ears drooped as he felt heavy hearted. "Well, I guess I'm on my own tonight."

Bonkers walked down the street towards Dementia Gardens, the housing complex he moved to after joining the police force. As he walked, he remembered the 'Rubber Room', a social club that most of the toons in town liked to go to for fun and conversation with their fellow toons.

Suddenly, Bonkers stood up straight. "Hey, why should I be down? The 'Rubber Room' is always bouncing this time of night. I'll just head over there for a while. Maybe, the old gang will be there."

Miranda stepped into the restaurant exactly at 8:00 pm. She smiled as she glanced at herself in a mirror by the coat closet. She smiled as she ran her fingers through her blonde bangs. Her shoulder length blonde hair was tied back with pin while rest of her hair rested on her shoulders in curls. She decided to give her hair a little change for tonight. Her royal blue cocktail dress that flared at the hips hung to her knees. The thin shoulder straps showing off her ivory shoulders.

She turned a little seeing her black sequin purse that hung from a thin strap off her shoulder and her black pumps that adorned her dainty feet.

Her eyes shined. "Hey, I look good tonight. This should go well." She smiled then breathed out and walked into the elegant dinning room.

Bonkers sat at a side table in the 'Rubber Room'. The music was jazzy and jumpy as always, the three main singers on stage performing their usual song.

Bonkers felt a bit sad as he saw an empty table near the front where he remembered sitting with Miranda the first time he brought her to the famous hang out spot for toons in California.

_A slow night nagged at the two young officers, not many crimes were being reported and it was five minutes until the end of their shift. Miranda and Bonkers got in the car._

"_It was an easy night, but so uneventful." Miranda said as she stretched. "And I guess that's a good thing." Bonkers buckled his belt. "Come on, I'll drop you off." Miranda told him._

"_Hey Miranda, I know a great place where we can hang out tonight. It's called the 'Rubber Room'. The greatest Nightclub for toons." Bonkers saw Miranda's eyebrows raise. "Well, I'm sure humans are welcome just the same. It's full of music and dancing and everybody has a great time."_

"_Wow, didn't know toons had their own nightclub." Miranda gave her partner a half smile. "Do you hang out there a lot?" Her smile grew wider._

_The Bobcat blushed slightly. "Nah, every now and then." _

_Miranda laughed._

_Later the two walked into the nightclub, Bonkers was greeted by the head waiter. "Hey Bobcat, your usual table." _

_Miranda leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Every now and then huh?"_

_The spotted orange toon Bobcat flushed again. _

_They were seated at a table as the jazzy music played. Miranda looked around at all the various toons dancing and having a good time. "Wow Bonkers, this place is pretty nice." Bonkers looked at her, feeling a little sad. Just then, some one bumped into him. _

"_Oh, I'm sorry." Came a female voice._

_Bonkers turned and saw Fawn Dear, the girl he had a crush for years while working at 'Wacky Toons' studios. Miranda smiled seeing Bonkers blush at her. "Oh, hey Fawn. It's been a while, how's it going?"_

"_Ok, I work here on the weekends. Hey wanna dance?" And before he could say anything, Bonkers was dancing around the room, a smile from ear to ear._

Bonkers was pulled out of his memories when he saw some old friends from his days at 'Wacky Toon' Studios. He smiled and waved a hand as he called them over. The two toons, a large dog guy in a black vest and tie, and a small wolf guy in a pair of blue jeans a fitted white T-shirt. The wolfs dark mane hung over his head like human hair. The back tied in a ponytail.

"Hey, Bonkers, how's it going buddy?" The toon wolf asked with a smile as he shook Bonkers hand. The toon sat next to him and they all squeezed in at their small table.

"Not bad Alffy. What about you guys. I haven't seen you guys since the unemployment line."

The toon dog frowned slightly. "Ah their going." He took a puff of his cigar.

Bonkers and Alffy looked at one another. The music in the club continuing to play. "So uh-" Bonkers started. "What have you guys been up to?"

The dog smiled. "I work at a car wash. The best part, its owned and run by toons. I love it there. 9:00 am to 7:00pm every day. Best move I ever made. Why did I ever work for humans I'll never know."

Bonkers felt a squeeze inside his chest. "Uh, Alffy, what about you? How's life been since 'Wacky Toons'?"

Alffy took a sip of his water. "I work at a photography studio now. I set up the scenes and the lighting. It's nice. Meet all kinds of people."

Sam jumped in. "Wait, you work for humans? Why?"

"Well, being let go from 'Wacky Toons' so suddenly like that I didn't have much of a choice. I needed the work. It's not so bad. The humans who run the place are really nice. I had to work, especially with two little ones on the way."

Bonkers eyes widened. "Really? You're kidding. You have a family? I never knew."

Alffy smiled. "I met her at 'Wacky Toons'. I worked in set display and she was one of the make up artists. I think she even did your makeup a few times Bonkers."

Bonkers tapped his fingers to the side of his head a moment. "Wait, that yellow cat girl in the blue dress. I think her name was-"

"Amy Pawson." Alffy reminded him. "She caught my heart the moment I laid eyes on her. She tried to act like she didn't notice, but after two weeks of flowers and silly stunts on her behalf, she finally agreed to go out with me. We married soon after that. Then two weeks before the studio let us all go, Amy told me we were expecting twins. So I had to find work as soon as possible. The humans are nice to us."

"Heh, I wouldn't trust em." Sam said, before puffing his cigar again.

Bonkers felt that squeezing feeling again.

"What about you Bonkers? You were the star of Wacky Toons. What are you up to these days?" Alffy asked. "I heard you're working at the L.A. police department."

Sam raised his bushy eyebrows. "Who woulda thought they'd let a toon be a cop." He said before taking a puff of his cigar.

"Yeah. I'm a junior officer with the L.A. P.D. Have a registered badge and everything. And my partner, she's great."

"She?" They said in unison.

Sam put an arm around Bonkers' shoulder. "She must be one heck of a toon to deal with you." He puffed out smoke as he laughed.

Bonkers waved the smoke away. "Actually, she's a human. Miranda Wright."

"Human?" Alffy and Sam looked at one another.

"You've made human friends. That's nice." Alffy said smiling politely.

But Sam was critical as always. "Watch your back Bobcat, humans can't be trusted."

Bonkers looked at him. "I've been friends with humans for years Sam. I don't have to worry. I trust them." And with that Bonkers stood up and left. "I should go."

"Wow, L.A. fire department. For fifteen years. And three awards. Nice." Miranda leaned her head on her hand as poked at her food as she listened to her date for the evening talk about himself.

She glanced at the time. It was 8:54 pm and she could stand it no longer.

"Wow, um, it's getting late. I should be going. It was nice, uh, to see you." She grabbed her purse and hurried out of the restaurant. She tugged on her hair. "Ach, I can't believe he turned out be such a bore." She walked down the street and noticed most of the stores were closing.

Miranda felt the chill in the air. Even in California it was cool at night. She tugged her shawl around herself and continued down the street. "I should have drove. Now I have to walk five blocks in these dumb heels." She continued walking and turned the corner. But she was so busy thinking about how badly her date went, that she didn't notice two men walking towards her.

Dark shadows hung over their faces. "Hey lady, you have the time." A clicking sound echoed in her ears as the two men pulled their knives out.

Miranda was not expecting this to happen. She took a few steps back. "Listen guys, here's my purse ok, now let me go."

One of the men put hand to his chin smiling. "What'cha think Larry?"

"Nah." The two men continued towards her. Miranda took a breath and let her police training kick in. She kicked the knife out of one guys hand and grabbed his arm spun him around knocking him into the other guy. The two men collided but regained their composure much to her surprise. "Uh oh, that usually works." She took off her heels and ran off down the street away from them. She knocked things down in their path as they pursued her. Garbage cans and old boxes went flying. She shouted for help.

Bonkers came walking down the street when he heard a female voice shouting. "Gosh, somebody's in trouble. I'd better help." But when he turned the corner, he didn't expect to see his friend and partner Miranda being chased by two men, one with a weapon.

"Miranda!"

She looked over at saw her toon friend. "Bonkers? Bonkers! Help!"

Bonkers eyed the guy with the weapon first. He put up his pointer finger as if testing the wind direction and bounced up with toon accuracy and grabbed onto an old fray phone wire and swung towards the two men, knocking the armed man to the ground, knocking him out cold.

Just then the wire came to life and shocked Bonkers. The toon shoot up twenty feet and fell back down on a pile of old wooden boxes. His caramel blonde hair singed and standing on end, the toon was out cold.

"Bonkers!" Miranda came to his side and held his head as the toon slowly opened his eyes.

"Did anyone get the license number of that truck?" The toon mumbled.

Miranda hugged him. "Bonkers you were so brave."

Just then they heard police sirens and saw flashing lights. The robber who was still awake put his hands up as he backed against a wall as two officers came out of a squad car weapons drawn.

"You ok Ma'am?" one officer asked.

Miranda looked up. "We're ok officer, thanks to my friend here."

Bonkers sat up and rubbed his head. "Good thing about being a toon is you can't really get hurt. But that doesn't mean you can't get an extremely bad headache, ow."

The next evening, both Miranda and Bonkers had taken the day off from work. Miranda and Bonkers sat on the couch in Bonkers apartment laughing at old cartoons.

Bonkers jumped up. "I'm going to make some coffee, want some?"

Miranda smiled at him. "Sure."

Bonkers hurried into the kitchen. He set the coffee maker and took out two cartoon mugs. Bonkers took out the sugar from the cabinet but forgot how many sugars Miranda liked. He went into the living room again.

"Hey Miranda, I couldn't remember how many-" He stopped when he saw Miranda laying on the couch, her head resting on a cushion, fast asleep.

Bonkers came up to her quietly. He turned off the TV and covered her with a blanket. He stared at her, she was definitely the prettiest human he had ever met. He gently ran a gloved hand through her pale blonde bangs. "Sleep well Miranda."

Bonker's fuzzy lavender toon slippers looked at one another as they peered out from his bedroom door. Then they hid under the bed as they saw their owner coming. Bonkers went to him room for the night.

The next day, Bonkers came into the office cheerful as usual. He saw Miranda was already there typing away at her desk. Miranda turned to see Bonkers clocking in for the day. "Hey Bonkers, why didn't you wake me up last night? I didn't get home until nearly 1:00 a.m."

"Oh, sorry Miranda. You looked so peaceful, I didn't want to disturb you."

Bonkers smiled.

Miranda eyed him a moment. She vaguely remembered last night after the cartoons. "You have my permission to wake me next time." She gave him a half a smile.

Another officer leaned over from his desk. "You hung out last night? Cool. What did you guys do?"

Bonkers and Miranda looked at one another. "We just watched some old cartoons." Miranda said.

"Oh. Not my thing." The man went back to his work.

Miranda and Bonkers looked at each and laughed. "Want to hang out this weekend. We could go to the peer, I heard fishing is big this time of year."

Miranda laughed. "Anything to get me to wear those ugly duck boots you bought me for Christmas."

The two laughed heartedly as another officer watched them. "Toons. I'll never understand them."

The End


End file.
